Where does Boston-based ceramics designer Jill Rosenwald
find inspiration for her colorful wares? Pretty much
everywhere. Last week she was moseying down a country lane with her kids when
she saw a yellow-and-purple lily whose color combo she just can’t shake, and
she doesn’t normally like those shades together. More often than not, however,
Rosenwald finds inspiration from fashion. Recently, a woman wearing a khaki
coat with gold buttons over a tangerine dress caught her eye. Those hues now
adorn her new collection of platters and bowls. And then there’s her
grandmother’s Pucci underwear, now unceremoniously pinned on a bulletin board
in her Fort Point Channel studio. Rosenwald says, “I knew my grandmother had
Pucci scarves, but when she died and my mom went to clean out her place, she
found these in a drawer, wrapped in tissue paper.”
Although Rosenwald is known for her lively patterned pottery,
which is sold online as well as at Barneys, Neiman Marcus, and ICON Group in
the Boston Design Center (and was featured on Sex and the City), she got
her start making earrings. She tells us, “I had this boyfriend in college who
was sailing around the Mediterranean for the summer on his father’s sailboat —
a big schooner maybe; I’m so not boaty. But I didn’t have the money for a plane
ticket. So I stayed at school, in the ceramics studio, making earrings. I would
bring them into the city and sell them on the sidewalk in SoHo.” When she
consistently sold out within a day, she went with it.
Funky downtown boutiques, including Urban Outfitters, snapped up
the earrings faster than she could make them. Funny thing was, Rosenwald hated
her designs! She says, “I was sick of the stupid clay earrings — they were too
heavy to wear and they broke. They were horrible, but people bought them like
crazy.” Eventually Rosenwald relocated to Boston where studio space was more
affordable. Jasmine Sola became her best customer and encouraged her to create
a line of home accessories.
Her early pieces were very ’80s — think aliens, cowboys, and
Egyptians. But soon she became more pattern-focused. She says, “It was the
beginning of establishing myself as a designer. Story lines developed. I based
each season’s collection on what went on in fashion.” Within a few years
Rosenwald had a thriving business, with hundreds of accounts and 10 employees
throwing pots and hand-painting her colorful, self-described “whirly swirly”
patterns.
It was pretty much over by 2002 though, due to the burgeoning of
businesses such as Pottery Barn, which filled the market with less expensive
pieces. Rosenwald responded to the resulting glut in the high-end, handmade
market by signing a licensing deal with a company in China that sold
mass-produced pottery to Levitz, Furnitureland, and
the like. Her bold graphic designs were a huge departure from the furniture
industry’s usual palm-frond and cabbage-rose motifs, and ultimately they just
didn’t work. Jill explains, “It was all a big disaster. The designs were dumbed
down and the products weren’t good. My design aesthetic just doesn’t mesh with
the mass market.”
Today, Rosenwald has come full circle. Well, almost. She’s not doing
earrings, but she is back to her expensive handmade designs. Earlier this year,
Rosenwald’s husband, business partner, and fellow potter, Lawrence McRae,
launched Switch, a line of airy ceramic lamps. Their design has been the
inspiration for Rosenwald’s latest line of ceramics, which she describes as
having “a very clean aesthetic with hard-edged circles.” They’re also creating
lighting for the furniture company Maine Cottage.
A number of new licensing deals have come along, this time for
high-end home goods, including rugs and bedding. Rosenwald says, “Before, they
told me my brand was whack-a-doodle and I had to put it on everything. It was
too much. Now, I think simple. When I’m designing a rug, I think about what I’d
like to see on my floor. I’ve made a couple I’m really proud of.” As for the
future, Rosenwald says, “Who knows what will come in the next 10 years? There’s
so much out there. I let it wash over me. And I draw, pen on paper, and let it
flow.”
Marni Elyse Katz blogs on design at
StyleCarrot.com.
